Apparently they were.  The doctor went on:  “You may be sure that we are fairly bursting with questions.  However, we are content to become informed as Estra sees fit to guide us.

“There is just one thing, more than any other, which I would like to know at this time.  Why is it that, although you all show a great lack of exercise, and are continually eating, you never appear to be healthy?”

Instantly a Venusian in the fifth row, to the doctor’s right, touched his phone and replied:  “It is a matter of diet.  We have nothing but ‘absolute’ foods; if you understand what that means.”

And from that time on, despite the fact that the explorers asked questions which, at home, would have found hundreds ready and able to answer, on Venus only one person answered any given question, and always without any apparent prearrangement.  For a long time they could not account for this.

The doctor motioned for Smith to take his place.  The engineer looked a little embarrassed, but cleared his throat noisily and said: 

“I am especially struck with the fact that each of you sits in a separate glass pew, or case.  Why is this?”

The reply came from one of the few people present who showed any signs of age.  He was, perhaps, sixty, and his hair was fast whitening.  He said: 

“For reasons of sanitation.  It is not wise to breathe the breath of another.”

“Also,” supplemented someone from the other side of that vast pit—­ “also, each is thereby enabled to surround himself with the electrical influences which suit him best.”

Smith stepped back, pondering.  The doctor looked to the geologist to take his place, but Van Emmon made way for Billie.  At any other time she would have resented his “woman-first” attitude; now she quickly found voice.

“How are you able to get along without aisles?  It may seem a foolish question, to you; but on earth we would consider a hall without aisles about as convenient as a room without a door.”

Immediately a Venusian directly in front of her, and on a level with her eyes, called out:  “Watch me, madam.”  And quite without an effort beyond touching a button or two, the fellow rose straight into the air, glass and all, and then floated gently over toward the middle of the hall.

“It probably appears complicated to you,” explained the Venusian whose side he had just left.  “We make use of elements not found on your earth.”

Billie’s sang froid was not shaken.  Instantly she came back energetically:  “Apparently your method overcomes gravitation.  Why haven’t you tried to travel away from your planet?”

And she looked around with the air of one who has uttered a poser, only to have another of the satin-clad people reply, from a point which she was not able to locate: 

“Because enough such power cannot be safely concentrated.”

As Billie retired, Van Emmon noted with growing irritation that the continuously affable aspect of the Venusians had not altered in any way, unless it was to become even more genial and sure.  The big man strode energetically to the microphone, and the other three noted a general movement of interest and admiration as the people inspected him.